BA Spending Daily October 23, 2012

Spending Daily | October 23, 2012

“Poll: Middle class families would trust Romney, not Obama, to manage their budgets”
Joel Gehrke writes in The Washington Examiner, “President Obama’s campaign has tried to portray Mitt Romney as callous and out of touch with middle class Americans, but a new poll shows that those voters would trust Romney with their finances over the president. Fifty-four percent of middle-class families would prefer to have Romney “set and manage [their] family’s budget” compared to just 36 percent who would prefer Obama’s management, according to a new survey from The Public Notice. Among independents who responded to the survey, Romney led Obama on that question 46-36.” Click here to read more.

Empty Promises? Obama Says Sequestration ‘will not happen’
The Hill reports, “President Obama said flatly that sequestration ‘will not happen’ as he defended against attacks from Mitt Romney over defense cuts at Monday’s debate. Romney accused Obama of allowing the military to be cut to historically low levels through $1 trillion in cuts set to occur over the next decade because of last year’s Budget Control Act and sequestration. … ‘First of all, the sequester is not something that I’ve proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed. It will not happen,’ Obama said. … While Obama stated the cuts will not happen, the cuts are the law and will take effect Jan. 2 unless Congress passes a new law.”

“Budget issues enter foreign policy debate”
According to The Hill, “Budget issues stole the spotlight for a period of the third presidential debate, a sign both candidates know the economy is voters’ top priority. President Obama pivoted from a discussion of America’s position in the world to outline his domestic agenda before attacking Romney for opposing an increase in taxes for the wealthy, despite the debate’s focus on foreign policy. Polls show that voters overwhelmingly identify jobs and the economy as their top issue this cycle.”

“Romney emphasizes $16 trillion debt as national security threat”
The Daily Caller reports, “During the final presidential debate Monday night, Gov. Mitt Romney said the nation’s spiraling debt was a real and present national security threat. ‘In order to be able to fulfill our role in the world, America must be strong. America must lead,’ he said. ‘And for that to happen, we have to strengthen our economy here at home. You can’t have 23 million people struggling to get a job. You can’t have an economy that over the last three years keeps slowing down its growth rate. You can’t have kids coming out of college, half of whom can’t find a job today, or a job that’s commensurate with their college degree.’”

Energy Department Spent $360M on Travel in Six Years
According to The Washington Post, “The Energy Department’s inspector general has warned that the agency has not taken sufficient steps to control the travel costs of its contractors, which account for 85 percent of the $360 million the department spent on travel over the past six years. Contractors have taken more than 90,000 international trips during that period, according to the audit, which comes as federal agencies have been under orders to cut back on all government travel. Department managers acknowledged to auditors they did not seek to limit contractor travel and generally let contractors decide which trips were justified for their work. … Last year, President Obama began ordering steep cuts in federal agency travel expenses. At the time, the Department of Energy estimated it could save $15.7 million in travel costs for 2012 by imposing stricter cost-saving rules for federal employee travel. … But the cost-savings orders were not universally applied to contractors, the audit found. … This July, for example, the Energy Department paid an estimated bill of $100,000 to $150,000 for 45 federal contract employees to attend a conference on engine combustion in Warsaw.”

Americans Owe $47,497 Per Household in Foreign Debt
CNSNews reports, “The debt that the U.S. government owes to foreign interests now equals approximately $47,495 for each household in the United States, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Treasury and the Census Bureau. Theportion of the U.S. government’s foreign debt now owed to interests in Mainland China is about $10,090 per household. … Back in January 2009, foreign interests held a total of $3,071,700,000,000 in U.S. government debt. That month, according to the Census Bureau, there were 111,079,000 households in the United States. Therefore the total U.S. government debt held by foreign interests was about $27,653.29 per household. Since January 2009, the totalU.S. government debt held by foreign interests has climbed from approximately $27,653.29 per household to approximately $47,494.93 per household—an increase of about $19,841.64 per household. Among foreign interests, those in Mainland China hold the largest share of the U.S. government’s debt.

Young Americans Doubt They Will Afford Retirement
The Associated Press reports, “Younger Americans in their late 30s are now the group most likely to doubt they will be financially secure after retirement, a major shift from three years ago when baby boomers nearing retirement age expressed the greatest worry. The survey findings by the Pew Research Center, released Monday, reflect the impact of a weak economic recovery beginning in 2009 that has shown stock market gains while housing values remain decimated. As a whole, retirement worries rose across all age groups – roughly 38 percent of U.S. adults say they are ‘not too’ or ‘not at all’ confident that they will have sufficiently sized financial nest eggs, according to the independent research group. That’s up from 25 percent in 2009. … According to the Pew report, the inflation-adjusted net worth of Americans ages 35 to 44 fell roughly 56 percent from 2001 to 2010, the sharpest decline for any age group and more than double the 22 percent rate of decline for boomers ages 55 to 64.“

Some in Congress Mull $55B Cuts to Replace Sequester
Reuters reports, “An idea percolating in the Congress, aimed at helping avoid the ‘fiscal cliff,’ would scrap the steep across-the-board spending cuts of $109 billion set to start on January 2 and replace them with more targeted savings of about $55 billion, according to aides familiar with the discussions. Further measures to reduce the deficit would be considered later in 2013 under this approach. An interim solution like this potentially could contain some revenue increases coupled with spending cuts, according to congressional aides. It also could provide some comfort to corporations, particularly in the defense industry, which are already panicky about the impact of lost government business.”

Sources Say Bernanke Will Not Chair the Fed Next Term
Reuters reports, “Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has told close friends he probably will not stand for a third term at the central bank even if President Barack Obama wins the November 6 election, the New York Times reported. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney has already said he would not re-nominate Bernanke if he wins the presidency. Bernanke’s term as chairman ends in January 2014. Bernanke, who was first appointed to run the U.S. central bank by former president George W. Bush and was given a second term by Obama, has declined to comment publicly on whether he would accept another four-year term. …  The Fed’s unconventional efforts to spur growth have been criticized by many Republicans and some economists who argue that they threaten future inflation and abet profligate spending in Washington.”